Carrier performance at one airport
AA→SFO
American Airlines at San Francisco International
- Departures
- 11,939
- Period
- September 2025 to August 2026
- Routes
- 8
- Rank here
- #2 of 8
American Airlines at San Francisco lands a B, about a point worse than the national rate of 77.3%. About one flight in four arrives 15 minutes late or worse, and those flights are late by close to two hours on average. That rests on 11,939 flights, of which United Airlines flew 62,048 at 79.8% on time.
Measured against the airport rather than the country, American Airlines runs about a point ahead of the 75.3% weighted average across all carriers at SFO. That is the comparison worth making: every operator here works the same runways, the same airspace and the same weather.
Key figures
On time
76.4%
11,652 completed departures
Avg delay
102 min
Across delayed flights only
Cancelled
1.84%
At SFO, this carrier only
Rank here
#2
Of 8 carriers clearing the floor at SFO
These figures cover 12,000 flights between September 2025 and August 2026. Beyond the headline rate, 9.5% of arrivals land a full hour or more behind schedule, against 8.3% nationally.
Against the competition
Every carrier at SFO, ranked
The choice of carrier is not cosmetic here. United Airlines arrives on time 79.8% of the time; Southwest Airlines manages 54.8%. Sample sizes sit next to every figure, because a two-point gap across 9,968 flights means less than a ten-point one.
| Airline | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| United Airlines | 62,048 | 79.8% | 58 min | 0.46% | B+ |
| American Airlines (this page) | 11,939 | 76.4% | 102 min | 1.84% | B |
| Delta Air Lines | 13,973 | 75.8% | 67 min | 1.29% | B |
| JetBlue Airways | 4,519 | 75.6% | 76 min | 2.21% | B |
| Alaska Airlines | 10,629 | 75.0% | 55 min | 1.10% | B |
| SkyWest Airlines | 31,536 | 73.8% | 74 min | 1.31% | C |
| Frontier Airlines | 3,581 | 62.7% | 81 min | 2.18% | D |
| Southwest Airlines | 9,968 | 54.8% | 61 min | 0.90% | F+ |
The spread between United and Southwest is 25 points, wide enough that it should decide the booking. On a hundred trips that is 25 more arrivals inside the on-time window.
Route by route
Where American Airlines flies from SFO
American Airlines operates 8 routes out of SFO with enough volume to report. Route records inside one carrier at one airport still spread widely, because a short shuttle and a transcontinental have very different exposure to a late inbound.
| Route | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| SFO to DFW · Dallas-Fort Worth | 3,094 | 73.0% | 95 min | 2.62% | C |
| SFO to ORD · Chicago | 1,765 | 71.6% | 113 min | 1.59% | C |
| SFO to JFK · New York | 1,501 | 77.5% | 113 min | 3.20% | B− |
| SFO to CLT · Charlotte | 1,492 | 83.6% | 118 min | 1.14% | B |
| SFO to PHL · Philadelphia | 1,333 | 85.4% | 107 min | 1.80% | A |
| SFO to PHX · Phoenix | 1,313 | 73.2% | 98 min | 0.91% | C+ |
| SFO to MIA · Miami | 1,137 | 75.8% | 79 min | 0.88% | B+ |
| SFO to LAX · Los Angelesthin sample | 303 | 76.2% | 100 min | 0.00% | B+ |
Flight by flight
American Airlines flight numbers from SFO
4 American Airlines flight numbers leaving SFO flew their main route often enough to have a record of their own. Grouped by destination.
Departure window
Best time of day for this operation
Departure time matters more here than the choice of carrier. The gap between the best and worst window is 31 points, against 25 points between the best and worst carrier.
- 5am–8am2,666 flights91.9%
- 8am–11am2,291 flights79.6%
- 11am–2pm2,347 flights67.7%
- 2pm–5pm1,471 flights61.1%
- 5pm–8pm548 flights63.8%
- 8pm–5am2,616 flights76.9%
Scale runs 55% to 95%.
Book the early departure. Flights leaving between 5am–8am arrive on time 91.9% of the time, against 61.1% for the afternoon window. That is 31 points of difference for no extra money, and it comes from the same aircraft having had no earlier flight to fall behind on. The 5am–8am window is the busiest, with 2,666 flights scheduled in it.
Across the year
Seasonal pattern
July is the worst month at 65.5% on time, 19 points below February, the best at 84.6%. Summer afternoon convection and peak-season schedules land on the same weeks every year, so this is a pattern you can book around rather than a run of bad luck. July was the busiest month here, with 1,187 flights.
Delay causes
What holds this operation up
- 44%Late-arriving aircraft
- 42%Carrier
- 11%National Airspace System
- 3%Extreme weather
- 0%Security
44% of delay minutes trace back to a late-arriving aircraft, meaning the plane was already behind before it got here. Across 280,000 reported delay minutes here, that single category outweighs weather by 15 to one. The split is drawn from 279,949 reported delay minutes.
Cancellations sit at 1.84% against a national 1.89%, which is ordinary. Diversions add another 0.56%.
9.5% of arrivals land a full hour or more behind schedule, against 8.3% nationally. Ninety minutes is the honest minimum for a connection here, and two hours if the onward flight is on a separate ticket.
The sample behind these figures is 11,939 flights, enough that the headline rate is stable to within roughly a point. The hour-block and month splits divide that further, so read the thinner bars with more caution than the headline.
Put together: the calendar is the biggest lever here, not the carrier or the hour. February runs 84.6% on time and July 65.5%, a swing of 19 points. If the dates move at all, move them out of July before you think about anything else. 11,652 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Common questions
American Airlines at SFO
How often is American Airlines at SFO delayed?
About one flight in four arrives at least 15 minutes late, which is the Department of Transportation's definition of a delayed arrival. That works out to 23.6% of the 11,939 flights in this analysis, against 22.7% nationally. Delayed flights are late by close to two hours on average.
Which airline is most reliable on American Airlines at SFO?
United Airlines leads at 79.8% on time across 62,048 flights. Southwest Airlines is at the other end on 54.8%, a gap of 25 points. Sample size matters as much as the percentage: a rate built from a few hundred flights moves around far more than one built from ten thousand.
What time of day has the fewest delays on American Airlines at SFO?
The 5am–8am departure window is the strongest at 91.9% on time. The 2pm–5pm window is the weakest at 61.1%, 31 points behind. Later departures inherit delays from earlier flights the same aircraft has already flown, which is why the curve slopes the way it does.
How bad are July delays on American Airlines at SFO?
July is the weakest month at 65.5% on time, compared with 84.6% in February. Across the year that is 19 points between the best and worst months. Moving flexible dates out of that month is one of the few things that reliably helps.
Related
Where to go next
Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics, on-time performance data, September 2025 to August 2026. Last updated ; recomputed monthly. How this data is collected.